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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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Chap. Copyright No... 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE CAUSE AND REMEDY 



HARD TIMES, POVERTY, 

HISERY, CRIME 

and VICE. 

Nov- r 



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V BY Sfgfr^AHi 



Ci. S. ROBERTS. 



SZLVJ-A 



PRICE, - TEN CENTS. 



COPYRIGHTED. 



1895. 



.HNfc4- 



THE CAUSE AND REMEDY FOR 

HARD TIMES, POVERTY, MISERY, CRIME AND VICE. 



By G. S. Roberts. 



You know the cry of " hard times " has 
become universal, you have felt its pangs per- 
sonally, it has entered your own home directly 
or indirectly. You have known of the unavoid- 
able misery, suicides and sufferings of the people, 
caused by circumstances over which they had no 
control for the last twenty five years, constantly 
growing worse year by year. Now this applies 
to you, whether you are a mechanic or a mil- 
lionaire. 

Why do you submit to these terribly infernal 
wrongs ? Don't you know a remedy, or do you 
glory in seeing people reduced to the very min- 
imum, physically and mentally ? 

You know that poverty, misery, destitution 
and discouragement surround us, and, in fact, 
you are well aware of the condition of the masses. 
The misery is not confined wholly to the un- 
employed, who suffer and die for the want of 
food, clothing and shetler; but among the bal- 
ance, who are worried and worn out physically 
and mentally with the unfavorable condition of 



devices for the past fifty years, and more espec- 
ially within the last twenty-five years, regardless 
of the consequences, which evidently did not 
enter into the heads of our politicians and great 
men of our own time, who couldn't see a hole 
through a barrel with both heads knocked out. 

But now the crisis has come, which we feel 
more and more every day; the market is filled 
with these machines, and they no longer give 
employment to the men that made them, except 
as operators, and consequently the overcrowded 
labor market is the result. Such a continuation 
of enforced idleness has filled the country with 
idle, hungry, desperate men, constantly growing 
greater and more desperate ; such conditions 
drive men to suicide, diink, murder, and every- 
thing except the noble, inielligent being designed 
by his Maker. 

And on the other hand, such an army of un- 
employed become a menace to society and a 
millstone around the necks of capital and labor. 
As they are non-consumers and do not purchase 
the products of the factory, as they have no 
means, they are supported by charitable individ- 
uals, insti utions, jails, prisons, etc., and this ex- 
pense must be borne by taxp3yers. 

They are a menace to the laborer and are the 
direct cause of the extremely low wages which 
prevail, as they are only too glad to take your 
place in the factory or elsewhere if you ask an 
increase of wages, consequently you have no 
power to act and are at the mercy of the employ 



er. For example, refer to the great strikes 
throughout the country — " Homestead," " Brook- 
lyn Trolley," and others too numerous to men- 
tion. No labor organization can, or ever will 
by their present method of working, prevent this 
state of affairs, for as a rule they do not create 
employment for a single man. They are simply 
trying to enhance the price of labor upon a fall- 
ing market, which is inconsistent with all laws, 
both human and divine. 

The present appears to be a critical time in 
the history of labor. Within the past few years 
workingmen have suddenly come into great 
power. Their more compact organizations, their 
more effective weapons of war have given them 
advantages that they never had before. The 
question of the hour is whether they can use 
this power temperately and wisely. There are 
ominous signs of a disposition to employ it 
passionately and vindictively. Men who speak 
in the interest of selfish capital- are heard to ex- 
press the confident hope that the workingmen 
will soon overstep the bounds of puidence and 
justice and ruin their own prospects. That is 
the real danger. Doubtless it is hard for those 
who are smarting under a sense of injustice to 
be always temperate and judicious ; but the wel- 
fare of these men depends on keeping their heads 
cool. It is easy for the organizations of labor 
to cripple by unreasonable demands the industry 
of whole sections. They have done this thing 
already more than once. In the stoppages and 



re- adjustments thus occurring great suffering is 
caused and no advantage is gained. An unjust 
demand, even if it be temporarily enforced, 
always re-acts on those who make it. The work- 
ing classes now have tremendous power. They 
may easily employ it for self-destruction. It is 
quite possible for them to use their power 
tyrannically, and tyranny will not thrive in this 
day, the tyranny of a mob, no more than the 
tyranny of an autocrat. This weapon of the 
boycott, with which the labor unions have lately 
armed themselves, is pretty sure to prove a 
boomerang. If they use it recklessly there may 
easily arise a consumers' union to fight them 
with their own fire, to patronize those whom 
they proscribe. Already the popular indignation 
at the unscrupulous use of this weapon is so 
strong that the publication of a boycott has 
proved in several cases an excellent advertise- 
ment of the boycotted dealer. With all the im- 
proved enginery of war the labor unions are 
sure to find that war is dangerous business. It 
is all the more dangerous because of these im- 
proved weapons. It can never be anything else 
but perilous and destructive business. Let not 
these combatants on either side suppose that 
they can hurt and maim their antagonists and 
yet not harm themselves. Over all this wretched 
strife one can imagine those better angels of our 
nature, whose ministry Abraham Lincoln once 
pathetically but vainly invoked, bending with 
divine compassion and crying to the embattled 



hosts with solemn rebuke and benignant appeal. 
Is it well, brother men, is it well to fight ? Is it 
not better to be friends ? Are you not all chil- 
dren of our Father ? Nay, are you not, as the 
great apostle said, members one of another? 
Your war is not only wholesale fratricide, it is 
social suicide. It is little to say that you can- 
not afford to fight. You cannot live apart ; you 
must live for one another. That is the way you 
were made to live, and you will never have any- 
thing but trouble and sorrow till you learn that 
way and walk in it. The stars in their courses 
will fight against you until you make peace with 
one another. Have we not had more than 
enough of war and its dismal noises and its 
spectral train of woes — more than enough of 
silent looms and fireless forges, of children's 
faces pale with hunger, and women's sunken 
eyes, of hearts made fierce and hard by long- 
cherished enmities, of class arrayed against class, 
and neighbor against neighbor? Oh, put it all 
away from you, the hate, the suspicion, the 
scorn. Stand here together, brethren, as you 
are helpers of one another, as you must be, and 
promise one another that you will do what you 
can, every one of you, to bring the day when 
between Labor and Capital there shall be no 
longer war, but peace for evermore. 

And my experience with labor leaders has 
been that they were working and studying the 
means to hold their offices rather than the actual 
means of improving the condition of the masses. 



8 

And if i he following means are adopted and 
thoroughly understood by the people, their ser- 
vices, along with their other expenses (which are 
enormous throughout the country, and which are 
being defrayed by a people the least able to bear 
it), would soon be cancelled. Leaders of such 
need not be alarmed, for when these changes 
take place there will necessarily be a demand for 
their services in other directions far superior 
from both social and financial standpoints. The 
desirable features of this reform are not months 
or years being developed, but immediately after 
its adoption from the first day we become bene- 
ficiary; for when all people are given employ- 
ment we are all benefited socially and financially. 
Sickness and disease are as unnecessary as sin in 
my estimation, and would comparatively become 
extinct if we knew enough to adopt the means 
at our disposal. We would make school teach- 
ers and dancing-masters of the doctors, and 
school houses and dance halls of the jails and 
prisons— for what other use would we have for 
them? When a man can earn his bread by the 
sweat of his brow he would rather do it than go 
there for it, or even take a chance of going there 
to avoid perspiration. 

Labor is a pleasure with us all when we are 
not required to overdo ourselves for little or 
nothing in return, as is the case with many. 
When such is the case it becomes a drudgery 
and discourages all. 

Labor is a commodity in the market, like 



apples, potatoes or anything else, and is for sale 
to the highest bidder ; and certainly no sober- 
minded, reasonable man can expect his employer 
to pay more than the market price, or even less, 
if he can help it, any more than the laborer 
would pay more than he was obliged to for a 
peck of apples or potatoes; they are both free, 
moral agents, and are justified in the eyes of 
God and man to act their own discretion in 
trade. But this is not the point where a bear- 
ing is to be found ; it's not what a man will do or 
can be coaxed to do, that's optional with him ; 
that's not business, as we term it, it's what he's 
forced to do. And the supply and demand of 
labor, like anything else, is the medium which 
regulates its market price. 

The influx of machinery and all labor saving 
devices are being brought into the market and 
they are all working in compeition with labor. 
The erroneous idea has been entertained by 
some, and even offered up as an argument, that 
it gave employment to men to make the machine. 
Such an idea is groundless. It certainly gives em- 
ployment to thousands and at the same time ten 
times as many are thrown out in consequence 
of it. If such were not the case, machinery 
would be a failure. 

For instance, the " McKay " machine costs 
for labor to build $100 oo, representing the labor 
of forty men one day, @ $2 50 per day. This 
machine will do the work of forty men the first 
day, consequently it has paid for itself the first 



day it runs; and will continue to do this for a 
business life time* at an expense that would not 
furnish one man with tobacco. Now is it to be 
wondered at that nearly one-half the people are 
idle, in consequence, in this country ? 

The question naturally arises, what is to be 
done ? Would you dispose of machinery ? I 
most emphatically answer, no, as I am in favor 
of labor saving devices and love to see progress 
and invention ; but bear in mind we must adopt 
measures whereby we may reap the benefits 
therefrom. If we are to have all these improve- 
ments, and cannot enjoy them or even acquire 
the means for sustenance in consequence of their 
being, we would be a thousand times better off 
without them. 

But to dispose of them is not the proper 
course to take ; there are other alternatives, 
whereby we may be benefited a thousand fold. 
Which are the great and only panaceas for all 
our ills ? These are less hours of labor, a tariff 
sufficient to protect all our industries, and a 
restrictioii of emigration. Regardless of all the 
isms, the success of this nation under its individ- 
ual system of controling its industries has excell- 
ed all others, as a man will take a greater interest 
in that he feels his own and will carry the same 
to a more successful issue, and we certainly do 
not wish to overthrow a system that has made 
us foremost in the universe. It is not a fault 
with the system, but a mistake on our own part 
in consequence of ignorance in not taking ad- 



vantage of the progress we have made and give 
more time for the fiddle and the bow. The 
shovel and the hoe have been in the hands of a 
few now to the extent that they on the one hand 
have no time or music left in them to fiddle, and 
on the other they haven't the means to get a fiddle ; 
so taking all things into consideration, there is 
very little fiddling and happiness in the nation, 
yes, I may say in the world, compared with what 
there should be. 

Enforced idleness means destruction to any 
people or nation. The old adage that an idle 
mind is the devil's workshop is as true as ever 
was spoken, and the only way to obviate this is 
through the natural law of everything — supply 
and demand. The demand should equal the 
supply ; instead of this being the case, the supply 
of labor exceeds the demand by one-half, or 
there are about two men for a job throughout 
the country. 

The limit to what the hours should be reduced 
is governed by whatever may be required to give 
lucrative employment to every man or woman 
in the land. For when a man is willing and 
begging for a chance to earn his bread by the 
sweat of his brow, and cannot get it, life becomes 
a mockery and a bore in the sight of God and 
man. The stipulated working time is to the 
nation what the governor is to the steam engine , 
a means of keeping it at a normal rate of speed, 
otherwise it would dash itself to pieces. 

I think six hours per day would be sufficient 



to provide all requirements of life. I am positive 
that this would be ample time in the shoe indus- 
try, and I am positive from statistics and a 
general knowledge of all other industries that 
this would be ample time to enable them to 
meet every demand made upon them. 

The demand for fewer hours of labor must be 
fairly considered. With the continual improve- 
ments in machinery the world's wants can be 
supplied by six hours' work in a day. Would it 
not be vastly better for the health, the morals 
' and the thrift of the community to have our shops 
and factories going six hours a day all the year 
round than to have them go ten hours for six 
months and be idle all day tor six months in the 
year, which is the present order in large sections 
of the country? The question whether the daily 
working time can be reduced one-half with no 
diminution in the daily wages is a question that 
must be settled on economical rather than senti- 
mental principles. But some interesting experi- 
ments tend to show that even when machinery is 
a large factor in production the products of six 
hours' work will be much more than one-half of 
ten hours' work. The reduction of the time will 
not proportionately reduce the product and 
should not therefore proportionately reduce the 
wages. It is often said that increased wages and 
shorter hours will only promote recklessness and 
dissipation among the men, that the addition to 
their income would go to the saloons, that the 
enlargement of their leisure would result in de- 



*3 

bauchery. Such statements are too sweeping. 
Some of the more ignorant and degraded of the 
men would be affected in this way no doubt, but 
it would not be true of all of them The new 
hope, the enlarged opportunity, would make the 
better elements among them self-respecting and 
frugal. Their leisure would not all go to the 
uses of the flesh. The most careful English stu- 
dent of this question, Prof. Leone Levi, bears 
this testimony. As a rule and in the long run, 
scarcity, low wages and scantiness of food go 
hand in hand with high mortality, drunkenness 
and crime, while abundance, high wages and full 
consumption go hand in hand with low mor- 
tality, temperance and good behavior. A sud- 
den increase of wages, as in the colliery districts 
in 1872-3, may find the recipients utterly unpre- 
pared for their good fortune. And so we have 
heard of miners indulging in champagne wine, 
and of puddlers purchasing for themselves seal 
skin waistcoats. But reason speedily asserts 
her higher sway. The housewife eagerly arrests 
a portion of the higher wages to furnish the bare 
rooms, to fill the empty cupboard and cloth the 
children. Little by little as the novel condition 
with its bountiful stores is realized self-respect 
increases, sobriety of conduct is induced and 
the family as a whole rises to habits of virtue 
and prosperity. This is the result which we 
have good reasons to expect, not universally at 
once, but on the whole and in the long run, from 
the improvement in the laborers' condition. 



H 

Some laborers cannot bear prosperity, some 
employers cannot. Most employers, I dare say, 
have an abiding conviction that it would not 
hurt them in the least to be a little better off, 
and they may safely reason in the same way with 
regard to the men. On the whole and in the 
long run happiness is better for the men than 
misery, plenty better than want, hope better than 
despair. Every effort that is made for the 
amelioration of humanity rests on that assump- 
tion. 

Understand, this must become universal and 
must be enforced in all States : Six hours for 
factories and all manual labor and ten hours for 
stores; this would be four hours per day less 
all around. 

There is a question that naturally confronts us 
here and that particularly concerns the employer; 
it is this : " How can a man pay ten hours' pay 
for six hours' work ?" This is easy ; a man can 
afford to pay just what his competitor does, 
whether it be five dollars for one hour's work or 
one dollar for fifteen. A word right here also is 
necessary to the mechanic, as such questions as 
these naturally arise : " What benefit will he 
derive from this, twice the pay and twice the 
cost of living expenses ? " I will tell you right 
here in the first place, you have four more hours 
per day for recreation, enjoyment and improve- 
ment; you have steady employment twelve 
months in the year, instead of nine or six months 
as is the case in a great many instances; the 



i5 

cost of living would only be one-third more 
instead of double, as taxes and expenses incurred 
from charitable institutions, jails, prisons, re- 
formatories, poorhouses and thousands of ways 
which money goes to help those who cannot 
help themselves, would be decreased. You may 
think these institutions cost you nothing ; they 
may not directly, but indirectly they cost you 
dearly ; whatever your landlord pays you pay; it all 
comes from the laborer. The unemployed cost 
you every day, as much as you receive ; for in- 
stance, you work for two dollars per day ; were it 
not for the unemployed who are waiting for work 
you would and could get twice two dollars per 
day ; were it not for the long work day it would be 
unnecessary to prohibit the employment of 
prisoners in the manufacture of any article, as 
the Prison Contract Labor Law was established 
for the protection of outside labor ; they would 
thereby become self sustaining and relieve the 
country of millions of dollars yearly. 

All stores and factories could be run cheaper 
in regard to heat, light, etc. Four hours per day 
less these expenses would amount to millions of 
dollars yearly. 

It is the impression among some people that 
the four hours would be abused and spent in 
saloons, billiard rooms and in general debauch- 
ery, but I have never found one of these people 
who thought that they themselves would abuse 
the opportunity; so "Judge not, that you be not 
judged." This is a mistake. The majority, yes 



i6 

I may say the whole, will profit by such reform, 
and it would make men of what are now vaga- 
bonds, as there is nothing that improves and 
bolsters up mankind like prosperity. With a 
chance to accumulate a few dollars it soon 
transforms a forlorn, discouraged man into an 
entirely different being. 

Right here, also, is a splendid opportunity for 
some crank to throw cold water upon the only 
opportunity a poor discouraged man may have 
had in a lifetime, by saying some men wouldn't 
amount to anything under any circumstances. 
This may be true in some cases, but it is to a 
great extent attributed to the circumstances 
under which we live that make us what we are, 
and the better the surroundings the better will 
be the results. This rule applies to all animal 
and vegetable creation, and the crank, as afore- 
said, who always complains is nothing but the 
offspring of a diseased or unhealthy father or 
mother, caused directly or indirectly by the very 
same conditions which he now tries to avoid im- 
proving. Such fools have always existed from 
earliest ages, and it is this deficiency in man 
that has caused so much misery and suffering 
and so retarded civilization from the beginning. 
It is the liberal-minded philanthropist and not 
the narrow-minded and the arrogant that have 
enhanced civilization and given us the oppor- 
tunities for our advancement Physically, Men- 
tally, Socially and Spiritually. Had the crank 
have held domain over us we would never have 



enjoyed either. But it seems that right is justi- 
fied, regardless of these blockheads, in time. 
So let all liberal minded people do all in their 
power for the advancement of mankind. We 
are right and we are sure to accomplish our 
design. 

The cause of drunkenness, as a rule, is poverty, 
used as a temporary means of drowning sorrow 
and miserable thoughts. Misery likes company, 
and they can find a plenty of this in the saloon, 
whereas under more favorable conditions man 
would seek a higher plane of thought and action. 

I thoroughly believe and know that mankind 
is entitled to more and better opportunities to 
improve their conditions, and am well aware 
that there is frozen music in many a heart that 
the beams of encouragement would melt into 
glorious song. 

We should be more earnest in our efforts to 
assist man from his present degraded condition, 
which is wholly due to circumstances directly or 
indirectly over which he has no control. Not 
altogether are they tramps and total wrecks, but 
the majority of men are physically and mentally 
unsound in consequence of overwork and worry. 
Let us then strive to adopt this, the only means 
to elevate, to improve man, to enlighten his 
mind, to enlarge the sphere of his affections and 
lead him to the cultivation of that true fraternal 
relation designed by the noble order of his being. 
It is the duty of every loyal citizen to himself, 
his family, the present and coming generations. 



18 * 

Now that I have dealt sufficiently, I believe, 
with this most important issue, I will call 
your attention to the other important issue 
which seriously demands the immediate atten- 
tion of all true American citizens. It is the 
emigration of foreigners, which is constantly 
flooding the country with an ignorant, undesir- 
able population. 

Emigration should be restricted for a term of 
years, such as will enable us to ascertain our 
own social and industrial condition. Five years 
would be sufficient, for if the hours of labor 
should be reduced to six hours per day the influx 
of foreigners would be so great that even that 
would prove inadequate ; consequently what 
would have proven a grand success would fall to 
the ground a dismal failure. Furthermore, we 
do not wish to be swamped with an ignorant, 
foreign element, as we cannot properly care for 
and educate them in such boundless numbers. 

" Charity begins at home," and we will find 
that we have all we can provide for here at 
present. Concerning the constitutionality of 
restricting emigration, would say, anything is 
constitutional that is conducive to the welfare 
and happiness of mankind, and if the opportun- 
ity to procure food, clothing and shelter is not 
conducive to right, to life, liberty and pursuit of 
happiness, I don't know what is. And this can- 
not be done as long as there are ten men for a 
job. 

Why should America be made a dumping- 



19 

ground of creation ? Let foreign countries adopt 
such reforms as we find conducive to our ad- 
vancement and emancipation, then they will be 
contented to remain at home. We have enough 
here at present, and are well aware that too 
rapid growth is an unhealthy and unreliable 
growth. The fact is, the hours of labor should 
have been reduced in foreign lands forty years 
ago. We cannot afford to sacrifice our happi- 
ness and future prospects on account of the 
ignorant stubbornness of foreign nations. If 
they fail to adopt a good thing when they see it r 
let them pay the penalty and not ruin this country 
with their ancient ideas; we are living in the 
nineteenth century, an age of progress and in- 
vention, and cannot be governed by the old- 
time ideas of Methuselah. 

These laws can only be brought about by 
legislative enactment, through the nomination 
and election of men by the ballot, who will work 
for the benefit of humanity, men who will sacri- 
fice their lives rather than betray their country- 
men and prolong the misery of innocent men,, 
women and children. 

Vote for no man who is not a worker for less 
hours and a restriction of emigration. Such men 
do exist and are ready and willing to offer them- 
selves up to the people for the enforcement, 
if need be, of the precepts of this book. Never 
in this world will the chances in life be improved 
for the betterment of man's condition, but on 
the other hand will be constantly growing worse, 



until these ideas are complied with by this 
nation. 

The facts of the matter are these: We have 
been striving to displace labor for years, and we 
have pretty nearly accomplished our design. It 
is not the fault of capital, as is generally suppos- 
ed, for the capitalist, as a rule, does nothing in 
the way of invention; they do not invent a 
machine or drive a spike, and I doubt if half of 
them could and drive it straight. So if it is labor 
saving devices that have thrown men out of em- 
ployment it must certainly be laid at the door of 
the mechanic, of which he may well be proud ; 
for, as aforesaid, if the working time is reduced 
it becomes the greatest of all blessings to man- 
kind, for it enables us to have all the require- 
ments of life and work less time to get them, 
thereby improving the condition of all men by 
giving more time for social, mental and physical 
enjoyment and improvement. Now then it 
must be admitted that it is the course of natural 
events and it came upon us like a dream. But 
now that we have fully awakened to the situation 
let us as speedily as possible adopt the means 
presented here for the emancipation of the 
people, and be ever watchful till the day breaks 
and the shadows flee away. 

The workingmen of this country will do well 
to give this subject serious consideration. Their 
rights to combine for the promotion of their own 
interests cannot be denied. The attempts of 
some to deprive them of this right are tyrannical, 



but the correlative of the right to form such com- 
binations is the right of every man to refuse to 
enter into them. That right they must recognize 
and defend. Whatever they can do by peaceable 
and rational methods to improve their circum- 
stances they ought to do, but let them not sup- 
pose that they can grasp by violence any real 
advantages. The right of every man to work 
for whom he will and for what wages he chooses 
to accept is the cornerstone of our free institu- 
tions. It is a monstrous blunder for working- 
men to deny this right to any honest man. Some 
of them do not seem to see how deeply their 
welfare and happiness are concerned in the 
preservation of this sacred right. Let them 
think well upon these words of one of themselves, 
who stood when he spoke at the head of the 
nation : 

" Nowhere in the world is presented a govern- 
ment of so much liberty and equality. To the 
humblest and poorest amongst us are held out 
the highest privileges and positions. The pres- 
ent moment finds me at the White House, yet 
there is as good a chance for you, children, as 
there was for my fathers. Again I admonish you 
not to be turned from your stern purpose of de- 
fending our beloved country and its free institu- 
tions by any arguments urged by ambitious and 
designing men. To save these institutions for 
our children, to keep these paths of privilege 
and preferment open to all, there must be no 
despotisms here, not even for beneficent ends. 



Workingmen want no other weapons than liberty 
and light. By peaceful and orderly measures 
they will the more speedily and surely gain the 
ends they seek ; by any other measures they will 
undermine and shatter the civil structure which 
is the shelter and defence of all they hold dear." 
The ways of getting this matter before the 
people are numerous. This book will be sold 
in every city, town and hamlet in this country. 
It is gotten up for the benefit of the masses, with 
the object of making it as brief, cheap and to 
the point as possible. A very effectual way, 
also, is to advocate this matter to your friends. 
Tell them to get a book, organize associations 
and societies, with names similar to this book. 
Such cannot but help interest the masses. Go 
in the highways and the byways and preach it. 
Try and comply with the requirements of that 
grand old book this time, if you never did before, 
by not letting your light shine under a bushel. 



23 



A FEW EXTRACTS FROM TWO OF 
OUR DAILY PAPERS. 



Oh, What a Philosopher ! 
Tv the Editor : 

Some " philosopher " wonders "what becomes of all 
the men who are superseded by women. This is as 
perplexing a query as what becomes of all the pins." 
That philosopher must be as blind as a puppy. He is 
not a workingman — at any rate, not a mechanic. Every 
mechanic knows that labor-saving machinery has thrown 
hundreds of thousands into the streets, where they join 
the army of the unemployed in all our great cities and 
the desperate characters of the highway. I have heard 
of the fellow who couldn't see the forest on account of 
the great trees obstructing his view. This philosopher 
equal s him in sagacity. Who would not be a philosopher ? 



He Starved to Death. 

James Maher, a native American, after wandering 
about for eight days without food, looking for work, fell 
senseless from fatigue and starvation at the Brooklyn 
tower of the bridge yesterday afternoon. He died later 
at the Brooklyn City Hospital. 



No Work — Death by a Rope. 

William L. Heckerman, a man of forty years, hung 
himself last night in a shed at the rear of his house, 34 
Cherry street, Jersey City. He was a carpenter, but 
could get no work. His body was discovered this morn- 
ing suspended by a piece of clothesline. 



24 

Who Has Work for This Man ? 
To the Editor : 

I come to you feeling assured of your sympathy and 
trust, hoping some kind reader will help my husband to 
get employment. He worked three years for a party 
who has taken smaller business, and therefore does not 
require help now. This threw my husband out of work 
over three months ago. He is willing to do anything 
honest. He is strictly temperate and can give good ref- 
erences. Any person helping him to get work will 
lighten the burden and cheer the heart of his sickly wife. 
Mrs. E. J. W., 292 First avenue. 



HOBOKEN, Sept. 23. — Frank Herdenrich, nineteen 
years old, committed suicide last night by hanging him- 
self in his bedroom. He had been out of work for 
some time, and had frequently threatened suicide. 



New York, Sept. 23. — Charles E. Taintor, a real 
estate broker, forty years old, of 1 1 West Eleventh street, 
was found dead in the bathroom of his home early this 
morning. A servant noticed the odor of gas, and traced 
it to the bathroom. The door was locked. Alarmed, 
she summoned a policeman, who broke open the door, 
finding Mr. Taintor's body on the floor. The man had 
turned on the gas, after plugging the keyhole of the 
door and closing the windows. On the table in his room 
was an incoherent letter addressed to his wife, who is in 
the country with tb jir two boys. The letter corcluded : 

*' It is more tb&n distressing to me that I have been 
unable to make myself and family happy. I have always 
tried to maintain you and yours in circumstances you 
deserve, but I cannot do so. I am truly sorry I have 
failed to make you happy." The letter was not signed. 



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